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(Researching Your Baby’s On-Time Development)

When I was pregnant, I was addicted to going online each week and finding out what my little embryo was up to. Once I absorbed as much information as I could on one website, I would move on to the next, just in case the first had forgotten to mention that my baby was growing a kidney that week. Things didn’t change much once my baby was born. I became addicted to finding out what milestones my son was supposed to be reaching each week. Even though I was so eager to find things out, I didn’t become an extremist. I wouldn’t call my doctor in a panic screaming, “EVAN HASN’T ROLLED OVER YET, AND IT SAYS RIGHT HERE ON WWW. SUPERBABY.COM THAT HE’S SUPPOSED TO. WHAT’S WRONG WITH HIM? SHOULD WE GET HIM HELP?”

There is absolutely no need to get crazy about milestones. If you ever do have a concern, simply ask your pediatrician at the next visit. Every baby I hung around with in my son’s first year developed at its own pace and in its own way. Some babies never crawled. They went from rolling to pushing themselves up to walking. Some walked months before the rest of the pack. It didn’t mean that one was slower than another. Your baby could be choosing to focus on learning to say “dog” instead of taking a few steps that month. This is the stage when competitive mommies have a ball. Like I told you before, don’t let them get the best of you. Fight back.

I remember being SOOO excited when Evan hit any milestone. I wanted to throw him a party with hot four-month-old chicks in bikinis just to celebrate. Sometimes it felt like a hundred years before he finally hit some developmental mark. Rolling over was our toughest. My husband and I did just about everything to get him to do it—dancing, squeak toys, making up songs for rolling over.

 

 

Finally it got to the point that my husband and I would roll around on the living room floor, day after day, to physically show him how to do it. By the way, this was a great way to see what had been hiding under the furniture for months. The remote, bottles, socks. So there are some benefits to looking like a weirdo rolling around your living room floor.

Once my son finally rolled over, I felt like a whole new world had been introduced to him. He was more easily entertained watching things going on around him rather than staring at the ceiling. He had officially graduated from blob to sitting-up blob. I was so proud.

Then one night when I was giving Evan a bath, he looked at me and said, “Cow.” I began to cry, not because he called me a cow, but because it was his first word. For months, that’s all he said. Cow, cow, cow.

You will find yourself calling everyone you know to tell them your baby’s first word. And, to be honest, no one really gives a shit. Your mom might think it’s precious, but you will be the only one squeaking in delight. Don’t even bother calling your single friends—they’ll fake a burst appendix rather than listen to thirty minutes of “cow this” and “cow that.”

Out of all the milestones, watching my son take his first steps and hearing him say “Ma Ma” were without doubt the best!!! It was amazing to me that, just a year earlier, my blob couldn’t do anything. Now he was walking like Frankenstein through the living room, with his arms open, saying, “Ma Ma.” All those months of changing crappy diapers and being puked on by your baby, without your blob even saying, “Hey, thanks,” simply disappear. This is one of those moments that prove how well you’ve done as a mom. Because your baby couldn’t have done it without you!